This year has been marked by robust efforts by the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) to modernize food labeling in the United States.
The agencies' regulatory agenda under the Trump Administration
moves forward with many of the Obama Administration's food
policy priorities (as we previously discussed
here) and, at the same time, delays enforcement of other
regulatory requirements to facilitate coordinated and less
burdensome implementation of the regulatory changes by
industry.

In January, FDA issued its Strategic Policy Roadmap, entitled
"Healthy Innovations, Safer Families," which highlighted
a goal to "empower consumers to make better and more informed
decisions about their diets and health; and expand the
opportunities to use nutrition to reduce morbidity and mortality
from disease." 1 Consistent with FDA's Strategic Policy
Roadmap, the first half of 2018 has included significant
regulatoryishing Certain Reference Amounts Customaril actions,
including:

Implementing menu labeling
rules;

Extending the compliance deadline for
implementing the updated Nutrition Facts labeling regulations and
issuing several guidance documents to facilitate the modernization
of nutrition labeling in the United States; and

In addition, on May 7, the USDA issued the long-awaited proposed
rule on the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard. This
Advisory provides a brief recap of recent food labeling
developments, a preview of what to expect in the coming months, and
deadlines for open comment periods.

I. Recent Nutrition and Food Labeling Developments

As part of its 2018 Strategic Policy Roadmap, FDA announced its
intent to implement a Nutrition Action Plan with the goal of
"reduc[ing] preventable death and disease caused by poor
nutrition by ensuring that consumers have access to accurate,
useful information to make healthy food choices" and
"foster development of healthier food options." FDA then
proposed the following actions:

After several extensions to the deadline for compliance with
FDA's menu labeling regulations, the rules became effective on
May 7, 2018.2 The menu labeling regulations
require restaurants and similar retail food establishments having
20 or more locations to provide calorie and other nutrition
information to consumers at the point of purchase.

FDA has made clear that during the first year that the rules are
in place the Agency will focus on education and not enforcement,
seeking to work cooperatively with covered establishments to attain
compliance with the rules. The Agency intends to "allow
establishments a reasonable opportunity to make corrections for
minor violations."3 FDA further intends to exercise
enforcement discretion regarding the "calories from fat"
declaration requirement because of its position that current
science is supportive of the understanding that calories from fat
are more relevant to the risk for chronic disease than overall
caloric fat intake.4

FDA also finalized the Menu Labeling: Supplemental Guidance for
Industry, which incorporates input from the public and industry
stakeholders.5 The updated guidance addresses
industry concerns about implementing the labeling requirements and
advises on how to comply with the requirements. For example, the
guidance provides photographic examples of ways to comply with the
menu labeling requirements and graphical depictions of how to
disclose calorie information for multiple items on one sign.

In addition to industry education, as part of the Agency's
Nutrition Innovation Strategy, FDA will be rolling out a campaign
focused on helping consumers better understand daily caloric
requirements and how to make healthy food swaps so that they can
benefit from the newly-available information. As FDA Commissioner
Dr. Scott Gottlieb explained, the Agency's goal is to
"implement these Congressional provisions in the most
efficient, effective manner that both benefits consumers without
placing unnecessary barriers on industry." 6

B. Compliance Deadline for the Nutrition Facts Label Pushed
Back to January 2020

In response to stakeholder concerns about the time-intensive and
burdensome nature of overhauling their labels to comply with the
new food labeling requirements, FDA has once again delayed the
compliance date for two final rules that affect the Nutrition Facts
Label: (1) Food Labeling: Revision of the Nutrition and Supplement
Facts Labels (the Nutrition Facts Label Final Rule) and (2) Food
Labeling: Serving Sizes of Foods That Can Reasonably Be Consumed At
One Eating Occasion; Dual-Column Labeling; Updating, Modifying, and
Establishing Certain Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed;
Serving Size for Breath Mints; and Technical Amendments (the Serving Size Final Rule). For an overview of
the final rules, which were published on May 27, 2016, please read
our firm's 7
Now, manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual food sales
must comply starting on January 1, 2020, while manufacturers with
less than $10 million in annual food sales must comply by January
1, 2021.

In deciding to extend this deadline, the Agency noted the
importance of giving manufacturers time to use FDA guidance to
address technical questions raised after issuance of the final
rules, such as questions pertaining to fiber, on which FDA issued
guidance in March 2018. In fact, since January, FDA has issued
sixducts belonging in the product categ guidance documents in
addition to menu labeling (discussed above) related to compliant
labeling, including the following:

Highly Concentrated Caffeine in Dietary
Supplements (April 2018). FDA provides guidance to firms that
"manufacture, market, or distribute dietary supplement
products that contain pure or highly concentrated caffeine, or are
considering doing so." FDA outlines its position that products
that sell highly concentrated caffeine in bulk may be adulterated
per section 402(f)(1)(A) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic
(FD&C) Act. The Agency has honed in on products that contain
pure or highly concentrated caffeine in powder or liquid forms,
since these products are often provided in bulk form. The products
often contain multiple potentially lethal doses and require the
customer to measure a safe serving.

Draft Guidance for Industry: Declaration of Added
Sugars on Honey, Maple Syrup, and Certain Cranberry Products
(February 2018). The guidance advises food manufacturers of the
Agency's intent to exercise enforcement discretion regarding
use of the symbol " " in the Nutrition Facts label to
direct consumers to truthful and non-misleading statements on the
package outside of the Nutrition Facts label. The symbol "
" immediately follows the added sugars percent Daily Value
information on single ingredient packages and/or containers of pure
honey or pure maple syrup and on certain dried cranberry and
cranberry juice products that are sweetened with added sugars and
that contain total sugars at levels no greater than comparable
products with endogenous (inherent) sugars, but no added sugars.
Comments on the guidance are due by June 15,
2018.

Proper Labeling of Honey and Honey Products
(February 2018). The guidance advises, in a question and answer
format, on how to properly label honey and honey products as
required by sections 402 and 403 of the FD&C Act to avoid
adulteration and misbranding. The intent of the guidance is to help
ensure that consumers understand the nature of the product they are
purchasing.

On May 7, USDA published its proposed rule for establishing a
national bioengineered (BE) food disclosure standard (the NBFDS
Rule).8 For more information on the
2016 law that mandated national BE food disclosures, please see our
discussion on the
Senate and
House passage of the bill.9 Under the proposal, the
compliance deadline would coincide with the compliance deadline for
Nutrition Facts labeling (i.e., January 1, 2020, with the exception
of small manufacturers, who must comply by January 1, 2021). Key
components of the proposal include the definition of BE food, the
types of food product covered by the rule, and the manner to
disclose, which are highlighted below. USDA is
accepting comments on the proposed rule until July 3,
2018.

Proposed Definition of a BE Food

Consistent with the 2016 BE food disclosure law, USDA's
Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) proposes to define a BE food
as a "food that contains genetic material that has been
modified through in vitro recombinant deoxyribonucleic
acid (DNA) techniques and for which the modification could not
otherwise be obtained through conventional breeding or found in
nature."10 The proposed rule adds that
foods that merely contain an incidental additive at an
insignificant level, and that "does not have any technical or
functional effect in the food" would not be considered a BE
food.11

AMS has proposed and requested comment on three alternatives for
foods that, although they contain a bioengineered substance, would
be exempt from disclosure based on the following criteria:

Food in which an
ingredient contains a BE substance that is
inadvertent or technicallyunavoidable, and accounts for no more than
0.9 percentbyweight of thatingredient.12

Food in which an
ingredient contains a BE substance that is
inadvertent or technicallyunavoidable, and accounts for no more than
5 percent by weight of that
ingredient.13

Food in which the ingredient(s) that
contain a BE substance account for no more than 5 percent
of the total weight of the food.14

AMS proposes to interpret the phrase, "inadvertent or
technically unavoidable" as "insignificant amounts of a
BE substance in a food that resulted from the coexistence of BE and
non-BE foods in the supply chain."15

Proposed Exemptions from the NBFDS Rule

In general, the NBFDS Rule applies to foods subject to the
labeling requirements of the FD&C Act, and certain foods
subject to labeling requirements of the statutes administered by
the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS): the
Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act,
and the Egg Products Inspection Act. The rule, however, would
exclude the following foods from the disclosure standard:

Articles intended for animal
consumption, such as pet food;

Foods that are certified organic
under the National Organic program;

Foods derived from animals who
consumed feed produced from, containing, or consisting of a BE
substance, from the disclosure standard;

Food served in restaurants or similar
retail food establishments;

Very small food manufacturers (annual
receipts of less than $2,500,000) from the disclosure
requirements;16 and

Certain food subject to the FSIS
statutes, such as pork or eggs.

In particular, food subject to the FSIS statutes, such as pork
or eggs, would only fall under the NBFDS Rule if one of the
following two conditions is met:

The most predominant ingredient of
the food would independently be subject to the FD&C Act's
labeling requirements, or

The most predominant ingredient of
the food is broth, stock, water, or a similar solution, and the
second most predominant ingredient of the food would independently
be subject to the FD&C Act's labeling requirements.17

For example, if meat, poultry, or egg is the first ingredient in
a food product with multiple ingredients, the product would not be
subject to the NBFDS Rule. By contrast, if meat, poultry, or egg
was the third (or lesser) most prominent ingredient, the product
would be subject to the NBFDS Rule.

To assist regulated entities in determining whether they need to
disclose the BE status of a food or food product, AMS developed two
lists of commercially available BE foods that are subject to
disclosure, according to whether the foods are:

"Highly adopted"
commercially available BE foods, which are those that have an
adoption rate of 85 percent or more in the US market. Examples
include: canola, corn (field), cotton, soybean, and sugar
beet.

"Not highly adopted"
commercially available BE foods, which are those that have an
adoption rate of less than 85 percent in the US market. Examples
include: apple (non-browning cultivars), corn (sweet), papaya,
potato, and squash (summer varieties).

If a food is on one of the two lists, the regulated entity would
need to disclose the BE status of the food. In the case of a food
or food product that contains an ingredient on one of the two
lists, but is not accompanied by a BE disclosure, regulated
entities must maintain documented verification that the product is
not, or does not contain a BE food.18

Proposed Manner to Disclose the BE Status of a Food

The proposed rule offers several options for regulated entities
to disclose the BE status of a food–(1) text disclosure, (2)
symbol disclosure, or (3) electronic or digital disclosure. The
manufacturer or importer must ensure that the proper disclosure is
provided on the food label if the product is packaged before
receipt by the retailer.19 For foods sold or packaged in
bulk by a retailer, the retailer must ensure that the proper
disclosure accompanies the BE foods.20

Text Disclosure.21
The list on which a BE food is included–either
"highly" or "not highly adopted"–governs
the disclosure statement that may be conveyed about the food. The
proper textual disclosure for a "highly adopted" BE food
or BE food ingredient is, "bioengineered food" or
"contains a bioengineered food ingredient". The phrase,
"bioengineered food", applies to raw agricultural
products (e.g., corn) and processed products that only contain BE
food ingredients (e.g., cornmeal). "Contains a bioengineered
food ingredient" applies to all other foods. For a "not
highly adopted" BE food, entities may use the following
statements: "bioengineered food", "may be
bioengineered food", "contains a bioengineered food
ingredient", or "may contain a bioengineered food
ingredient." AMS has requested comments on the proposed text
disclosures, including with regard to the use of "may be"
or "may contain" disclosures.

Symbol
Disclosure.22 AMS has proposed, and requests
comments on, three alternatives for the symbols that may be used to
indicate the BE status of a food.

Electronic or Digital Link
Disclosure.23 Regulated entities may also
disclose the BE status of a food through electronic mechanisms such
as scanning a code with a smartphone or other device. In this case,
regulated entities must also include the statement, "scan here
for more information" or similar language reflecting the
technology used to access the information, and provide at telephone
number with instructions to "call for more
information."

In addition to the disclosure methods described above, small
food manufacturers (annual receipts greater than $2,500,000 but
less than $10,000,000) have two additional disclosure options: (1)
providing a telephone number accompanied by the phrase, "call
for more information", or (2) an internet website address,
accompanied by the phrase, "visit [website] for more food
information."

Disclosures should be placed on the package in accordance with
proposed 21 CFR § 66.100(d). Note, that for bulk foods, such
as seafood or fresh produce, the disclosure must be provided on
signage or other materials that "allows consumers to easily
identify and understand the bioengineered status of the
food."24

II. What's Next?

On March 29, 2018 FDA Commissioner Gottlieb announced the FDA
Nutrition Innovation Strategy, intended to "take a fresh look
at what can be done to reduce preventable death and disease related
to poor nutrition." While the strategy is still in the early
stages of development, key elements of the strategy are supposed to
include "modernizing claims, modernizing ingredient labels,
modernizing standards of identity, implementing nutrition facts
label and menu labeling, and reducing sodium." Since March,
FDA has taken steps towards agency action in these areas, which we
have discussed below and will continue to monitor.

A. "Healthy" and "Natural" Food
Labeling

Updating the standards governing the use of "healthy"
and "natural" in food labeling remains a priority for
FDA. "Healthy" was first defined by the Agency in 1993,
but much has changed in dietary and clinical guidelines in the
intervening years. FDA's current approach to the use of the
term "healthy" in food labeling is set forth in a 2016
Agency guidance.25 The guidance conveyed the
Agency's intention to exercise enforcement discretion for foods
that bear "healthy" labeling and exceed the limits for
total fat, provided that monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats
are present in larger amounts than saturated fats.

FDA also intends to exercise enforcement discretion for foods
rich in potassium or vitamin D, despite their absence from the
current regulations. Last year, FDA held a public meeting to seek
stakeholder input on its plan to update the regulatory standards
for using "healthy" as an implied nutrient content claim
in human food labeling, as we previously discussed here. FDA noted its intent to revise
requirements for "healthy" claims this year in its
Strategic Plan for 2018. Dr. Gottlieb reiterated the Agency's
focus on use of the term "healthy", explaining that the
Agency will be taking into consideration a broad range of issues,
such as availability of information about nutrients, as the Agency
pursues rulemaking to update the definition of "healthy",
"so it's based on nutrition criteria and food
considerations that are more up-to-date than those being used for
the current definition."26 He also discussed that FDA
will be considering how to depict "healthy" on food
packaging for consumers to easily locate this information. FDA will
be soliciting stakeholder input on whether a standard icon or
symbol for "healthy" should be developed for use on food
packages.27

With regard to use of the term "natural" in food
labeling, as we previously discussed here, the Agency's current approach is
that a food labeled as "natural" should have
"nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color
additives regardless of source) included in, or added to the
food."28 Dr. Gottlieb has also
reiterated the Agency's commitment to establishing a definition
for "natural." For example, at the National Food Policy
Conference on March 29, 2018, Dr. Gottlieb discussed his viewpoints
and the Agency's progress, recognizing the lack of clarity
surrounding the term, "natural", and explaining that like
other claims about FDA-regulated products, such claims must be
"true and based in science."29 Action on these
claims is expected this year.

B. New Qualified Health Claims

Modernizing health claims, including how the Agency reviews
health claims that it receives from industry, is a key component of
the Nutrition Innovation Strategy. The Agency intends to streamline
the review process for qualified health claims, in part due to the
time-consuming nature of claim review. As Dr. Gottlieb explained,
"We have a number of [qualified health claims] in the queue
right now, and they take a significant time to review."30
Accordingly, FDA plans to "triage requests based on their
public health significance and prioritize those that are the most
meaningful and science-based."31 FDA points to
its recently-permitted qualified health claim linking early peanut
introduction and reduced risk of developing a peanut allergy as an
example of its new approach to health claims.32 The Agency hopes
that improving its review process and prioritizing requests would
"prioritize those qualified health claims that are most likely
to have a health benefit, and that are based on the strongest
science would encourage industry to submit their strongest, most
significant, claims for review and to discourage submission of
claims with little value."33

C. Modernizing Standards of Identity

FDA signaled that modernizing Standards of Identity (SOIs) would
be an important Agency priority over the coming year by including
this issue in the Nutrition Innovation Strategy. SOIs are
"mandatory requirements related to the content and production
of certain food products," including yogurt, bread, jams and
more.34 FDA intends to issue a Request
for Information to help guide the Agency in developing a strategy
as it evaluates existing SOIs. Through these efforts, the Agency
seeks to "maintain the basic nature and nutritional integrity
of products while allowing industry flexibility for innovation to
produce more healthful foods."35

According to Commissioner Gottlieb, key products impacted by
FDA's evaluation of SOIs are expected to include dairy and
yogurt products, based on requests made by the International Dairy
Foods Association.36 In response to a broad request
for comments to assist FDA in its regulatory reform activities, the
International Dairy Foods Association submitted comments to
FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN)
setting forth 24 priority issues for CFSAN Regulatory Reform,
including a number of requests for modernizing SOIs for milk,
yogurt, and cheese.37 In particular, IDFA
specifically requested that FDA finalize a 2009 proposed rule to
modernize the yogurt SOIs.38 We will monitor Agency
developments to ensure clients are aware of opportunities to
comment on proposed agency action.

D. FDA Focus on Voluntary Sodium Reduction

Advancing guidance on dietary sodium reduction targets is
another key component of the Agency's Nutrition Innovation
Strategy. As we previously discussed
here, on June 2, 2016, FDA released draft guidance for industry on the
Agency's effort to work with food companies and restaurants to
gradually reduce sodium levels in food. Once finalized, the draft
guidance document will provide short-term (two years) and long-term
(ten years) voluntary mean and upper-bound targets for sodium
concentrations in categories of commercially processed, packaged,
and prepared foods.

The proposed short-term targets aim to reduce sodium intake from
the current average intake of over 3,400 mg/day to 3,000 mg/day,
while the long-term goal is to reduce sodium intake to 2,300
mg/day. FDA is currently working on addressing over 150 public
comments on the targets, and intends to align its efforts with the
Dietary Reference Intake activities being conducted by the National
Academies. According to Dr. Gottlieb, FDA plans to release the
updated short-term targets in 2019 and will continue engaging on
the longer-term targets.39

***

In the first half of 2018, FDA and the USDA have taken
significant steps to fulfill the Obama and Trump
Administrations' commitment to modernizing the country's
food labeling system. Companies engaged in the development,
marketing, and sale of food intended for use in the United States
should anticipate forthcoming opportunities to comment on proposed
agency action intended to (1) educate consumers about the
relationship between diet and chronic disease and (2) encourage
food (and recipe) choices by consumers (and industry) that promote
a healthy lifestyle. Our team will continue to monitor these
developments and advise you on pathways to both comment on agency
proposals and comply with finalized regulatory guidance and
regulations. In the interim, please feel free to contact us with
any questions about the topics discussed in this advisory.

17 Proposed 21 CFR
§ 66.3(b)(2). Note that predominance refers to the position of
an ingredient on a list of ingredients, and is determined by the
weight of the ingredient in the product, per 21 CFR §
101.4(a)(1).

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights recently announced a no-fault settlement, including a $125,000 penalty and a two year corrective action plan for Allergy Associates of Hartford, P.C.

This service is completely free. Access 250,000 archived articles from 100+ countries and get a personalised email twice a week covering developments (and yes, our lawyers like to think you’ve read our Disclaimer).

Email Address

Company Name

Password

Confirm Password

Position

Mondaq Topics -- Select your Interests

Accounting

Anti-trust

Commercial

Compliance

Consumer

Criminal

Employment

Energy

Environment

Family

Finance

Government

Healthcare

Immigration

Insolvency

Insurance

International

IP

Law Performance

Law Practice

Litigation

Media & IT

Privacy

Real Estate

Strategy

Tax

Technology

Transport

Wealth Mgt

Regions

Africa

Asia

Asia Pacific

Australasia

Canada

Caribbean

Europe

European Union

Latin America

Middle East

U.K.

United States

Worldwide Updates

Registration (you must scroll down to set your data preferences)

Mondaq Ltd requires you to register and provide information that personally identifies you, including your content preferences, for three primary purposes (full details of Mondaq’s use of your personal data can be found in our Privacy and Cookies Notice):

To allow you to personalize the Mondaq websites you are visiting to show content ("Content") relevant to your interests.

To enable features such as password reminder, news alerts, email a colleague, and linking from Mondaq (and its affiliate sites) to your website.

Mondaq hopes that our registered users will support us in maintaining our free to view business model by consenting to our use of your personal data as described below.

Mondaq has a "free to view" business model. Our services are paid for by Contributors in exchange for Mondaq providing them with access to information about who accesses their content. Once personal data is transferred to our Contributors they become a data controller of this personal data. They use it to measure the response that their articles are receiving, as a form of market research. They may also use it to provide Mondaq users with information about their products and services.

Details of each Contributor to which your personal data will be transferred is clearly stated within the Content that you access. For full details of how this Contributor will use your personal data, you should review the Contributor’s own Privacy Notice.

Please indicate your preference below:

Yes, I am happy to support Mondaq in maintaining its free to view business model by agreeing to allow Mondaq to share my personal data with Contributors whose Content I access

No, I do not want Mondaq to share my personal data with Contributors

Also please let us know whether you are happy to receive communications promoting products and services offered by Mondaq:

Yes, I am happy to received promotional communications from Mondaq

No, please do not send me promotional communications from Mondaq

Terms & Conditions

Mondaq.com (the Website) is owned and managed by Mondaq Ltd (Mondaq). Mondaq grants you a non-exclusive, revocable licence to access the Website and associated services, such as the Mondaq News Alerts (Services), subject to and in consideration of your compliance with the following terms and conditions of use (Terms). Your use of the Website and/or Services constitutes your agreement to the Terms. Mondaq may terminate your use of the Website and Services if you are in breach of these Terms or if Mondaq decides to terminate the licence granted hereunder for any reason whatsoever.

Use of www.mondaq.com

To Use Mondaq.com you must be: eighteen (18) years old or over; legally capable of entering into binding contracts; and not in any way prohibited by the applicable law to enter into these Terms in the jurisdiction which you are currently located.

You may use the Website as an unregistered user, however, you are required to register as a user if you wish to read the full text of the Content or to receive the Services.

You may not modify, publish, transmit, transfer or sell, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, link, display, or in any way exploit any of the Content, in whole or in part, except as expressly permitted in these Terms or with the prior written consent of Mondaq. You may not use electronic or other means to extract details or information from the Content. Nor shall you extract information about users or Contributors in order to offer them any services or products.

In your use of the Website and/or Services you shall: comply with all applicable laws, regulations, directives and legislations which apply to your Use of the Website and/or Services in whatever country you are physically located including without limitation any and all consumer law, export control laws and regulations; provide to us true, correct and accurate information and promptly inform us in the event that any information that you have provided to us changes or becomes inaccurate; notify Mondaq immediately of any circumstances where you have reason to believe that any Intellectual Property Rights or any other rights of any third party may have been infringed; co-operate with reasonable security or other checks or requests for information made by Mondaq from time to time; and at all times be fully liable for the breach of any of these Terms by a third party using your login details to access the Website and/or Services

however, you shall not: do anything likely to impair, interfere with or damage or cause harm or distress to any persons, or the network; do anything that will infringe any Intellectual Property Rights or other rights of Mondaq or any third party; or use the Website, Services and/or Content otherwise than in accordance with these Terms; use any trade marks or service marks of Mondaq or the Contributors, or do anything which may be seen to take unfair advantage of the reputation and goodwill of Mondaq or the Contributors, or the Website, Services and/or Content.

Mondaq reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to take any action that it deems necessary and appropriate in the event it considers that there is a breach or threatened breach of the Terms.

Mondaq’s Rights and Obligations

Unless otherwise expressly set out to the contrary, nothing in these Terms shall serve to transfer from Mondaq to you, any Intellectual Property Rights owned by and/or licensed to Mondaq and all rights, title and interest in and to such Intellectual Property Rights will remain exclusively with Mondaq and/or its licensors.

Mondaq shall use its reasonable endeavours to make the Website and Services available to you at all times, but we cannot guarantee an uninterrupted and fault free service.

Mondaq reserves the right to make changes to the services and/or the Website or part thereof, from time to time, and we may add, remove, modify and/or vary any elements of features and functionalities of the Website or the services.

Mondaq also reserves the right from time to time to monitor your Use of the Website and/or services.

Disclaimer

The Content is general information only. It is not intended to constitute legal advice or seek to be the complete and comprehensive statement of the law, nor is it intended to address your specific requirements or provide advice on which reliance should be placed. Mondaq and/or its Contributors and other suppliers make no representations about the suitability of the information contained in the Content for any purpose. All Content provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Mondaq and/or its Contributors and other suppliers hereby exclude and disclaim all representations, warranties or guarantees with regard to the Content, including all implied warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Mondaq expressly excludes all representations, warranties, obligations, and liabilities arising out of or in connection with all Content. In no event shall Mondaq and/or its respective suppliers be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use of the Content or performance of Mondaq’s Services.

General

Mondaq may alter or amend these Terms by amending them on the Website. By continuing to Use the Services and/or the Website after such amendment, you will be deemed to have accepted any amendment to these Terms.

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and you irrevocably submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales to settle any dispute which may arise out of or in connection with these Terms. If you live outside the United Kingdom, English law shall apply only to the extent that English law shall not deprive you of any legal protection accorded in accordance with the law of the place where you are habitually resident ("Local Law"). In the event English law deprives you of any legal protection which is accorded to you under Local Law, then these terms shall be governed by Local Law and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts where you are habitually resident.

You may print and keep a copy of these Terms, which form the entire agreement between you and Mondaq and supersede any other communications or advertising in respect of the Service and/or the Website.

No delay in exercising or non-exercise by you and/or Mondaq of any of its rights under or in connection with these Terms shall operate as a waiver or release of each of your or Mondaq’s right. Rather, any such waiver or release must be specifically granted in writing signed by the party granting it.

If any part of these Terms is held unenforceable, that part shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to give effect to the intent of the parties, and the Terms shall continue in full force and effect.

Mondaq shall not incur any liability to you on account of any loss or damage resulting from any delay or failure to perform all or any part of these Terms if such delay or failure is caused, in whole or in part, by events, occurrences, or causes beyond the control of Mondaq. Such events, occurrences or causes will include, without limitation, acts of God, strikes, lockouts, server and network failure, riots, acts of war, earthquakes, fire and explosions.

By clicking Register you state you have read and agree to our Terms and Conditions